Liriano is out...

Francisco Liriano of the Twins is officially a member of the Twins' AAA Rochester team.

After coming back from Tommy John Surgery, he has been anything but impressive. Posting a terrible stat line of 0-3, 15H, 13ER, 13BB's, 7K's, 11.32ERA, all in 10.1 innings pitched.

Owners, did you really expect him to come back and throw smoke and go back to his 2006 form where he had 144K's in 121IP?? Be realistic. Owners should keep him on their bench, his upside is great and if he can gain some confidence in AAA you can expect some decent numbers when he is called up.

BJ Ryan

BJ Ryan of the Blue Jays is officially back from Tommy John Surgery and collected his first save of the season. Owners of Ryan should take some caution with this and maintain Accardo as a back-up just in case something happens with Ryan. Also, since the Blue Jays want to take care of Ryan's arm you will find the Jays holding Ryan back from back-to-back days of pitching. Ryan is coming back early from surgery and you never know how this will pan out in the future especially since he has an erratic pitching style that puts more than usual amount of pressure on the arm.

Owning both Accardo and Ryan should be a good hedge.

Liriano to Minors

Hard throwing Franciso Liriano of the Twins will start the season in the minors. He is being sent down for two starts and will pitch in a Class-A and also a Class-AAA game to work on his fastball. Depending on his velocity and his ability to command his pitches the Twins will consider bringing him back up after the two starts.

Fantasy owners, take this as a good sign. If there were problems with his arm he would be on the DL. The Twins are going to be extremely cautious with Liriano after Tommy John Surgery. Most owners drafted him with the thought of him being on the DL or slowed by the surgery. Waiting for the first two weeks is nothing.